Eucharistic Prayers QUESTION from David Eckel August 29, 2001
A friend of mine told me that Eucharistic Prayers 2, 3, & 4 were taken from Protestant services. Recently, Karl Keating on Catholic Answers Live stated that the prayers came from older Roman Catholic sources. Can you give me more information (references, etc.)?
ANSWER by Mr. Jacob Slavek on September 2, 2001
Dear Mr. Eckel,
Karl Keating is correct, these prayers are taken from older CATHOLIC sources. Eucharistic prayer III is taken mostly from the Roman Canon (prayer I) but shortened. Prayers II and IV are from anaphoras. Although I don't know much of the history, I believe they were revisions of older Greek Catholic Liturgies which were extremely lengthy in order to make them shorter. Prayer II is based on the anaphora of Hippolytus, and prayer IV on the anaphora of St. Basil.
There were some protestant ministers that aided with the revision on the Liturgy, but remember that they worked with CATHOLIC fathers and everything was approved by Rome, so all prayers of the Mass are indeed Catholic prayers.
Mr. Slavek
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